The fifth-year tight end has declared himself good to go in Sunday’s regular-season opener with the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium.

While Monday’s announcement in front of a throng of reporters at Gillette Stadium was quite surprising given the Patriots’ tight-lipped culture, Gronkowski explained he wanted to “get it out of the way now.”

When last we saw Gronkowski active on game day, he was being carted off the field at Gillette Stadium with a right knee injury, the result of a hit he took from Cleveland Browns safety T.J. Ward in the third quarter of the Patriots’ 27-26 win last Dec. 8.

As was the case in 2013, when surgeries on his forearm and back delayed his start to the season (that and his early finish limited him to just seven games last year), months of rehabilitation followed.

“It all started from Day One, with hard work and dedication – keep on grinding every day to make my whole leg stronger,” said Gronkowski, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments on the hit by Ward. “So far it’s (come) along very well. My mentality now is that I’m ready to go, I’m ready to be out there and ready to get going.”

Although he didn’t play in a preseason game, Gronkowski expressed enthusiasm over the way the knee responded over the course of training camp.

“Just the way we just worked throughout all camp and the last few weeks, everything’s just been going well,” he said. “There’s been no setbacks, just (doing) more and more every single day.

“Just taking it really week by week, day by day, everything’s (gone) well. Now I just have to focus on the Miami Dolphins, just keep focusing on getting better and getting stronger.”

There’s no question that the Patriots offense would be strengthened by a healthy, or at least an active, Gronkowski.

In the 55 regular-season and postseason games in which he’s appeared over four years with the team, the 6-foot-6, 265-pounder has hauled in 247 passes for 3,578 yards and 45 touchdowns.

Now he is looking forward to playing his 56th meaningful game with the team.

“It feels good,” said Gronkowski. “It’s really a lot of hard work and dedication from Day One. The dedication and hard work isn’t stopping. Every day is a grind. It was, for sure, no doubt about it. You’ve got to wake up (and) be there for rehab, but seeing my boys grind every single day, my teammates working hard, it just made me want to work hard, made me want to get back out here, talking to the quarterbacks, talking to receivers.

Page 2 of 2 - “It just basically feels good to be out here now this week preparing for the Dolphins, knowing that I’ve put myself in the best situation the last few weeks, few months, to get back out here. That was my plan the whole time, to work as hard as I could so I’d be ready for this week.”

Glen Farley may be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.